Prologue

Life Changing Stories

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VJJJF63

(아마존 Kindle Direct Publishing을 통해서 최근 영어 책을 한 권 출판했습니다. 제가 브런치북으로 만든 책의 영문판입니다. 영문판을 먼저 쓰고 한글로 바꾼 것인데, 서문만 먼저 여기에 옮겨 봅니다.)

I cannot forget the cold wind that blew into my home the last night of my mother’s funeral. I have long thought about the small changes that wind caused in me, starting with two questions I started asking myself on that memorable night:

“How did the positive changes in my life begin? And if there was a positive change in life for someone, how did it become possible?”

This book seeks to find the answer to those questions. I want to talk about the special moments that have made a difference in my life. Others might find it helpful to learn how I explain the positive changes in the life of a rural child whose parents passed away during his fifth and sixth grades of elementary school. I want to talk about the changes and grace that I have experienced in the hope that I might inspire many who are still working for a better life, especially those trying to make positive changes similar to the ones I’ve made. I would like to give a little help to those who are struggling with conditions and are frustrated by their problems. So this book is largely based on my personal experiences.

In A Community of Character, Stanley Hauerwas says the story of a community determines one’s character. “[I]t is certainly true that we need to be trained to acquire certain habits,” he wrote. “But it is equally important to be introduced to stories that provide a way to locate ourselves in relation to others, our society, and the universe. Stories capable of doing that may be thought of as adventures, for there can be no self devoid of adventure.”[1] In other words, the character of the individuals in a community is influenced by the story of that community.

Alister MacIntyre elaborates on this assertion in his book, After Virtue:

The narrative therefore in which human life is embodied has a form in which the subject—which may be one or more individual persons, or, for example, the people of Israel, or the citizens of Rome—is set a task in the completion of which lies their peculiar appropriation of the human good; the way towards the completion of that task is barred by a variety of inward and outward evils.[2]

Thus, the character of the individuals in a community is also related to the common good of the community. If you apply this perspective broadly, the story of every individual’s life determines their character. It is therefore clear that the story of one’s life has a great impact on their character and life. Here I will examine my own life from the point of view of Hauerwas and MacIntyre to see how my character formed within me and what benefits I have derived from it.

To further illustrate the impact of story on our lives, this book introduces several movies and explores what we can learn from them. I try to think about what makes a positive change in our lives and how it is formed as a continuing character by harmonizing the lessons from these movies with the story of my life and ethics of character.

[1] Hauerwas, A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic, Kindle Edition locations(3217).

[2] MacIntyre, After Virtue, 124.